The Seven Wonders of the Word of God | Part 1

What makes the Bible such good?

Because it condemns him, or could write if he would, because it surpasses him. The Bible is a supernatural book. Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring the timeless truth of the Gospel found in the teaching of Adrian Rogers. The more we read the Word of God, the more it will reveal itself to be true.

Pastor Rogers said, I'm not finding hidden flaws, I'm finding hidden beauties. Psalm 119 reveals seven reasons why we can trust that the Bible is the wonderful Word of God. Psalm 119 deals with the Word of God, and I love this psalm. As a matter of fact, I have a Bible in my office right near the door, and when I walk out to preach, I can glance at that Bible, and almost always I'll get a verse out of this psalm to hide in my heart before I come to the platform. I love this psalm, and it just...there's hardly a verse in this psalm.

You cannot put a fire in your heart just before you get ready to preach, or to whatever you do if you're going to teach or share the Word of God. But look, if you will, please, at three verses. Psalm 119, verse 18, first of all. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

Underscore the word wondrous. And then look, if you will, please, in verse 27 of this same chapter. Take me to understand the way of thy precepts, so that I shall talk of thy wondrous works.

Underscore again the word wondrous. And then look, if you will, in the same psalm all the way over the same chapter to verse 129. Thy testimonies are wonderful.

Therefore doth my soul keep them. Twice he speaks of wondrous things, and then he says, they are wonderful. I want to talk to you tonight about what I'm going to call the seven wonders of the Word of God. Now we've heard of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and some have tried to say the seven wonders of the modern world.

I want to say there are seven wonders of the Word of God. And may I say that the danger is not so much from the infidels who attack the church from the outside. They don't bother me really so much. They're like woodpeckers pecking on the church. And we can see them and shoo them away. But there are others who are on the inside. I call them termites. They are on the inside eating away at the foundation. And we have the infidels on the outside, the woodpeckers, and the liberals on the inside, the termites.

And sometimes I think that the termites are doing far more danger than the woodpeckers are. As a matter of fact, there used to be a man named Robert Ingersoll who was a very brilliant man who went up and down the land giving lectures as to why he did not believe in God. And he would lampoon and ridicule the Bible.

And after a while he stopped doing that and somebody asked him why he no longer did it. And he said this. He said, there's no more need for me to do that anymore as many preachers in the pulpits are denying the Bible in the churches of our land and are accomplishing far more to destroy faith in the Bible than I could do by taking to the lecture platform. Well, the Bible is being attacked today. And there are those who say you don't need to defend the Bible. The Bible will defend itself, and that sounds good. But my dear friend, the Bible says also that we're to earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. John Calvin, a great theologian, said this, I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent without giving any sound. I think that's true.

We would be cowards. That great Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, said this, He's saying that's the turning point. That's the continental divide. That is the point of difference. What people believe about the inspiration of the Word of God. And then the great Spurgeon went on to say, The weather without can be equal to the loss within. He was saying the same thing in another figure of speech. It's not primarily the woodpeckers. It's not the waves. It's the loss of direction.

It's the termites, or whatever the analogy is on the inside. Now, there's seven wonderful things about the Word of God that I want to share with you tonight. I love the Bible.

When I began preaching, the 19-year-old boy, I believe the Bible is the Word of God. I still believe it tonight. I believe it even more tonight than I believed it then. I believed it with all of my heart.

I got married when I was a 19-year-old boy. I love Joyce with all of my heart, but I love her more today than I loved her then, and I loved her then with all of my heart. But the more I see of the Word of God, the more convinced I am that the Bible is exactly what it says of itself that it is, that it is indeed a wonderful, wonderful book.

I'm not finding hidden flaws. I'm finding hidden beauties, and I'm finding authentication of that which I already believe and blessing upon blessing of the book that has already blessed me down through the years. What are the seven wonders of the Word of God as I see them tonight? Well, first of all, wonder number one, the Bible is a supernatural book. Another book was written as the Bible was written. Now, the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 2 Timothy 3.16.

And the word inspiration is the Greek word theokneustis or pneustis, however you wish to pronounce it, theokneustis. And it literally means that the Scripture is God-breathed. Now, what you're hearing tonight is my breath that makes my voice.

As my diaphragm pushes up on my lungs and the air comes out of my throat, it comes over my larynx and causes my vocal cords to vibrate, and my tongue, my teeth, my lips form sounds, and these sounds go into the air and the microphone and come into your ear, and there are vibrations that are set up in your ear that send signals to your brain, and your brain interprets these sounds. But what you're hearing, really, as I speak, is my breath. I speak without breath. Now, the Bible is the breath of God. That's literally what the word means. It literally means that God breathed the Scriptures out. The Bible is as much the word of God as if God were up here in a physical body speaking words.

It is the breath of God. And that Scripture, 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, not part of it. That's the reason we believe in what I call the verbal plenary inspiration of the Bible.

Verbal, from the Latin verba, or verba, means word. We believe in word-by-word inspiration. Matthew 4, 4, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We believe in verbal inspiration. That means word-by-word inspiration of the Bible. You say, well, what's the point?

What difference does it make? Well, you see, some people say the Bible is inspired in its thoughts, but not its words. Well, very frankly, you cannot have accurate thoughts without accurate words. Anymore, to have thoughts without words would be like to try to have mathematics without numbers.

Words mean something. Our Lord Jesus thought that even a jot or a tittle there in the word of God was important. And in the original manuscripts, every line, every point, every pin, stroke, every jot, every tittle was placed there by the will and the purpose of Almighty God. I believe that. The verbal inspiration of the word of God and the plenary inspiration of the word of God.

The Latin word plenus means full. That is, it's fully inspired. It may not be as fully inspiring. If I had to be shipwrecked on an island, I'd much rather be shipwrecked with Romans than first or second chronicles. There's nothing wrong with first or second chronicles, but some of it reads like a Hebrew telephone directory. Now, I'd rather have, of course, the book of Romans.

Sure, that's fine. That's wonderful. But I want to tell you, first chronicles is as inspired as the book of Romans. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And you'll find as you read the Bible, 3,808 times a phrase like this, God said, or the Lord said, or thus saith the Lord, or the Lord spake, thousands of times it says that. Now, either the Bible is the word of God or it's a big bundle of lies because over and over again it says that this is what God says.

Now, having said that, somebody says, well, how do you know that God gave all of the Bible? If all the Bible is the breath of God, how come it sounds so different? Why, if you're reading, for example, James, it doesn't sound like what Paul wrote. And if you read Peter, it doesn't sound like James or Paul. So if God wrote it all, why is it all so different?

And why is the language so different and the style so different if it's all given by inspiration of God? That's a very interesting question. I've asked Carter Threlkel. Carter, where are you? I want you to come up here tonight. Get a trumpet for me and hit a few notes, would you? Make it pretty, Carter. Now, Carter, get a trombone and hit a few notes for me.

Thank you. Now, let's give him a hand. Now, how many of you, if your eyes were closed, could tell the difference between a trumpet and a trombone? Let me see your hand.

Most all of us, even me, I could do that. I could tell the difference between a trumpet and a trombone. All right. Now, the trumpet has a personality of its own, has a tone, a tenor of its own. And the trombone has a characteristic, a personality, a tone, a tenor of its own.

Right? But who was playing both instruments? One man, Carter Threlkel. You pick up the Bible and you can see the personality, the temperament, the characteristic of the Apostle Paul. Or you pick it up, you can see the personality, the characteristic, the temperament of Simon Peter or the others.

But who is behind both of them? Almighty God. And you see, as these instruments were used of this man, human instruments wrote the Bible, but behind these human instruments was Almighty God. The Bible says holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And so as you read the Bible, it's a very human book. You see the prayers, the praises, the fears, the victories, the yearnings, the frustrations of the men who wrote this book. It's marked by their personalities. Yet God in and through these men was the one who was doing the speaking.

The leading. Dr. Louis Schaeffer said of the Bible, it is not such a book as man would write if he could because it condemns him or could write if he would because it surpasses him. That's a great statement. So the Bible is a supernatural book. It's not like any other book. The Bible is a book in comparison with which all others in my eyes are of minor importance and which in all my perplexities and distresses has never failed to give me light and strength.

That's what Robert E. Lee said about the Word of God. It is, my dear friend, a supernatural book. Second wonder of the Bible.

Not only is it a supernatural book, but my dear friend, it is a supernatural book. Now what I mean by that is that the Bible written by the Holy Spirit must be interpreted by the Holy Spirit. Now revelation is God's communication of truth to man. Inspiration in a broader sense than the narrow sense I gave it just a few moments ago is the recording of that revelation. But you see, revelation and inspiration is not enough. We still need illumination to be able to understand the Word of God. And in these scriptures that I read to you tonight, notice that they were prayers.

And he walked with them and talked with them and conversed with them. And then there's a very wonderful part there in Luke chapter 24 verse 45. The Bible says, And then he opened their understanding. My mind has camped on that verse many a time. I thought, Oh, God, do that for me.

God, do that for me. He opened their understanding so they could understand the scriptures. You see, the Bible says, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.

What does that mean, the natural man? It means the may even be able to articulate the doctrines of the Bible in his own way. But friend, he will never know the real message of the Bible until the Holy Spirit of God turns the light on in his soul. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. That's the reason that when we come to this book, we must come to this book and lay in the dust of our intellectual pride and say, Lord God, speak to me. Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 7 says, Let the wicked forsake his thoughts, the unrighteous man his ways, and let him return unto the Lord.

Just forsake your thoughts. You put away your slide rule, you put away your microscope, you put away your intellectual pride, and you come and ask the Holy Spirit of God to teach you. This book is a spiritual book. You will not rip truth out of it. God will reveal it to you.

You won't have it. I mean, you may have a perfectly inspired word of God, but until the Holy Spirit uses it as His convicting cutting sword or until He illumines you as a student of it, it will not be real in your heart. Thirdly, third wonder of the word, not only is it a supernatural book, and not only is it a spiritual book, it is the Savior's book. The Savior's book. I say it's the Savior's book, number one, because He believed it. And it's the Savior's book, number two, because it presents Him. Jesus Christ is the hero of the Bible. If you read the Bible and you don't find Jesus Christ somewhere, somehow, standing in the shadows or presented in plain view, go back and read it again because the Bible is about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now let me just say, reiterate those two things again. First of all, Jesus was a believer in the inerrancy of the word of God. Even the liberals have to confess that Jesus was a believer in the inerrancy of the word of God. Jesus said in John chapter 10 and verse 35, the Scripture cannot be broken. That's what Jesus Christ said about the Scripture. And by the way, just turn to the Gospel of John chapter 5. I want you to see what the Lord Jesus said about the word of God. John chapter 5 and verse 39, Jesus said, search the Scriptures.

And then you think that you have eternal life. And they are they which testify of me. And by the way, what Scriptures was He talking about then? The Old Testament. The New Testament had not yet been written. And Jesus speaking to the Pharisees and to others said, you search the Scriptures.

These are they which testify of me. Don't ever get the idea that the Old Testament is about Israel and the New Testament is about the church or the Old Testament is about history and the New Testament is about the Lord Jesus. And Jesus said concerning the Scriptures, the holy writings, that they testify of Him. And then I want you to look down in verse 45, John chapter 5 verse 45.

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. And when He said Moses, He was talking about what we call the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, called under one heading, Moses. Now Jesus believed that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. And then notice what He says in verse 46. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me. For He, Moses, wrote of Me. Do you see that?

That's powerful. Now we have people today who don't even believe that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. And they would laugh at the idea that Christ is in the Old Testament in the first five books of the Bible.

But you know what? I'm going to line up with Jesus, who said that Moses wrote it. He didn't say some priestly redactor wrote of Me. He said He, Moses, wrote of Me. And then I want you to notice this, that Jesus put the writings of Moses and His sayings on the same plain. But if ye believe not His writings, how shall ye believe My words? Do you see that?

Do you see what He did? You see, He endorsed what Moses wrote, and He put what Moses wrote on the same level as His own words. I'm just trying to show you a Jesus view of the Bible, because why?

Well, He's your Master. And the servant's view of the Bible must be the same as His Master's, right? You see, what I'm trying to say is, my dear friend, this supernatural book, this spiritual book, is the Savior's book.

He believed it. He said the Scriptures cannot be broken. And He said you search the Scriptures, for these are they which testify of Me. Jesus is the theme, the hero of all of the Bible.

And coming up Monday, we'll hear part two of this important message. But maybe today you have questions about who Jesus is or what He means to you, how to begin a relationship with God through Christ. Go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio.

You'll find resources and materials there that can answer questions you may have about your faith. Again, click Discover Jesus when you go to lwf.org slash radio. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, you can call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD and mention the title, The Seven Wonders of the Word of God. This message is also a part of the insightful series, The Bible, The Book of the Ages, for the complete collection, a dozen powerful messages. Call 1-877-LOVEGOD or order online at lwf.org slash radio.

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